Having spent most of 2017 on the road, including dates with Frank Turner in the US and a European spring tour with Valerie June, Will Varley will return to live venues in 2018, including Germany in April, after spending the autumn in the studio working on his fifth album.

After Will's sell-out tour of Germany in winter 2016 and shows in Cologne and Hamburg in June this year, as well as the Xtra Mile Reeperbahn Festival showcase in September, Will is eager to return to the warm welcome of Germany’s thriving music venues. He may have some surprises too, among a heap of new songs. He will have extensively limbered up during February and March in North America with hyperactive labelmates Skinny Lister too, so you’re in for some fine-tuned and memorable shows.

Will practically lives on the road, and 2017 has been perhaps even more busy than 2016, when he toured with the Proclaimers and supported Billy Bragg as well as performing on the Flogging Molly Salty Dog cruise. After starting this year on the road with Frank Turner in the US, Will embarked on a headline tour of his own in Germany before the European tour with Valerie June, including his first ever France dates. He also performed the Xtra Mile night of Frank Turner's Lost Evenings festival at Camden's legendary Roundhouse in May. He spent the rest of spring and the beginning of summer in the US supporting Lincoln Durham before hitting the festival circuit, wowing crowds at 2000trees, and Greenfield.

With so many shows under his belt, the wait until 2018 will be worth it. Often politically charged and always emotionally loaded, Varley’s live shows have been drawing crowds across the world, and his headline tours have seen him selling out venues from Berlin to New York and everywhere in between. It’s been a meteoric rise for the 29-year-old who began self-releasing albums and travelling England on foot only six years ago. In 2015 he signed a deal with independent music champions Xtra Mile Recordings, and momentum has been growing around the young troubadour ever since with the release of two studio albums ‘Postcards From Ursa Minor (October 2015) and ‘Kingsdown Sundown’ (November 2016) and toured extensively across the UK, Europe and North America opening for supporter and label mate Frank Turner, Scottish heroes The Proclaimers and Billy Bragg.

Raised on a diet of The Clash, The Jam, Specials, Billy Bragg and other such politically-charged, punk-ignited British pop, 24 year old Southampton-born troubadour Seán McGowan has been playing up and down the UK for six years, and DIY released three EPs over that time (given away / sold on a “pay what you want” basis at shows) after catching the ears of the music industry at 2013’s Great Escape festival.

An appearance on Billy Bragg’s Left Field stage at Glastonbury that year saw Seán exposed to his biggest audience yet, and touring / playing shows with artists the likes of Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly, The Rifles, Beans On Toast and Frank Turner.

In early 2014, Seán started piecing together a new record with Sam ‘Get Cape’ Duckworth at the controls, at Sam’s own Amazing Grace studio in London.

The first fruits of the sessions are two slices of teenage Southampton life entitled ‘Come Unstuck’ (featuring Frank Turner on backing vocals) and ‘Swings & Roundabouts’, and were released as a double a-side 7”. He spent the rest of the year on the road, touring with 'Get Cape' all over the UK and Rob Lynch all over mainland Europe.

2015 saw Seán on the road pretty solidly. Supporting Skinny Lister and then embarking on his first ever headline tour in December to packed rooms all over the UK. The release of 'Look Lively' EP set McGowan up nicely to build into 2016 which proved to be rather exciting; supporting Recreations and Grace Petrie in the first half of the year. The second half saw the release of his single 'No Show' and resulted in a small full band sold-out UK tour.

2017 has already been jam packed with touring for McGowan. Including his first ever main stage festival appearance at 'Common People,' sold out headline shows and a UK tour with Mr Billy Bragg himself. He's now penned a record deal with Xtra Mile Recordings and released his new EP “Graft & Grief” featuring new single 'Costa del Solution'. It's all coming together for the Southampton boy. He's got the ball and he's running with it.